Certain diseases or conditions may be treated, according to modern medical techniques, by delivering a medication or other substance to the body of a user, either in a continuous manner or at particular times or time intervals within an overall time period. For example, diabetes is commonly treated by delivering defined amounts of insulin to the user at appropriate times. Some common modes of providing insulin therapy to a user include delivery of insulin through manually operated syringes and insulin pens. Other modern systems employ programmable fluid infusion devices (e.g., insulin pumps) to deliver controlled amounts of insulin to a user.
A fluid infusion device suitable for use as an insulin pump may be realized as an external device or an implantable device, which is surgically implanted into the body of the user. External fluid infusion devices include devices designed for use in a generally stationary location (for example, in a hospital or clinic), and devices configured for ambulatory or portable use (to be carried by a user). External fluid infusion devices may establish a fluid flow path from a fluid reservoir to the patient via, for example, a set connector of an infusion set, which is coupled to the fluid reservoir. In many instances, the fluid reservoir requires filling by the patient prior to use in the external fluid infusion device. This process can be tedious and time consuming. In addition, many set connectors of various infusion sets have one or more vent ports near where the fluid reservoir connects to the set connector. In certain instances, the filling of the fluid reservoir with the fluid prior to use may result in wetting of these vent ports of the set connector, which is undesirable. In other scenarios, air may be trapped during the filling of the fluid reservoir. Trapped air may form “bubbles” within the fluid contained in the fluid reservoir, which are also undesirable.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved systems for filling a fluid reservoir of a fluid infusion device, and a fluid reservoir that can be filled with a reduced occurrence of wetting of the vent ports. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a fluid reservoir that reduces an amount of trapped air or “bubbles” that enter and exit the fluid reservoir. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.